Built in the waning years of Delzoun, the massive granite fortress of Citadel Adbar winds deep into the walls of the Ice Mountains.

The smiths of Citadel Adbar are renowned across the North as the crafters of the fines weapons and armor available. Thick smoke and the ringing of hammers fill the air in the city, keeping tourism to a minimum.

While some of these armaments are traded with neighboring Sundabar and Mithral Hall vie secret routes through the Underdark, Adbar’s weapons are mostly used in its own defense. Orcs, trolls, and giants threaten this insular dwarfhold year round. As a result, Adbar dwarves tend to be war-like, gruff, and disciplined.

Experienced and disciplined, Grast is everything Hrimnir is not. His years as a mercenary have taught ‘the Gut-cruncher’ the value of patience and advantage. He has counseled the jarl on where and when to strike the dwarves hardest.

The war has been good for Grast. Between bounties on dwarf beards and feasts of dwarf flesh, the ice troll mercenary has made out like a bandit. He is under strict orders from Hrimnir to let nothing into the frost giant lair, a task he regards with sinister glee.

When the frost giant Hrimnir and his army marched from their caves at the very top of Icespire Peak, it was apparent to the Winterkill goblin tribe that the lands they called their home would soon no longer be theirs. A small tribe, they did not have the strength to stand against Hrimnir’s might. Unwilling to leave their lands but unable to prevent Hrimnir from taking those lands by force, the Winterkill tribe surrendered to the frost giant leader and agreed to become part of his army.

Hrimnir’s first order to the Winterkill tribe, after gleefully crushing their chieftain under his foot, was to raid and harry the Icehammer camps in preparation for the real assault, a task which the goblins had already been happily fulfilling to a smaller degree.

What pact Hrimnir must have made with the powers of the Elemental Chaos is unknown, but thought it, the secure the knowledge of powerful rituals- rituals that grant him great power and allow him to spread the icy desolation of Winterforge beyond natural boundaries.

Since tapping this power, Hrimnir has not left the immediate proximity of the Winterforge itself. Instead, he issues orders to his frost giant lieutenants from an icy throne. While the true extent of his abilities is a mystery, the sages of the Icehammer Clan surmise that closing the portal to Elemental Chaos must rob Hrimnir of his borrowed power.

Like common trolls, ice trolls possess startling regenerative ability, savage claws, and voracious appetite for flesh. Unlike common trolls, they are adapted to frigid climates and occasionally employ weapons, armor, and tactics instead of indiscriminate brutality.

The ice trolls of Icespire Peak have a long history of collaborating with the local frost giants, enjoying the carnage and carrion that accompanies a frost giant raiding party. In the service of Hrimnir, the ice trolls seem to be especially motivated to violence and cruelty. Some among the Icehammer dwarves suggest the trolls hear the voice of Thrym, god of cold and desolation, whispering on the mountain winds.

Florin Icehammer led his people to Icespire Peak with promises of reclaimed history, vast wealth, and a new home, only to watch that dream turn to nightmare when Hrimnir’s savage army put his people to the sword. He refuses to abandon the Peak, and desperately searches for a way to turn the tides on the giants.

Florin and a handful of his best warriors are determined to strike at Hrimnir’s lieutenants. They have a small camp hidden in the White Crags, the frigid waste in the heights of the mountain. From here, they launch daring raids hoping to cripple Hrimnir and force a confrontation.

Dwarves are no stranger to sieges. When Hrimnir’s army came down from the heights and expelled them from the mithral mines, the Icehammer dwarves set up several fortified positions to funnel the wounded back to the base camp in Torunedar.

These ‘triage camps’ are defended by stout warriors acquainted with battlefield strategy and determined clerics supplied with powerful healing magic. To lose one of these camps is a grave blow to the dwarven defense effort. This is last such camp remaining in the battle for Icespire Peak.

Lakkar’s axe grew with him when the giant tapped the energy of the Winterforge, becoming truly colossal in scale. With this massive weapon, Lakkar cut bloody swaths through the dwarven lines, cleaving chasms and rifts into the mountain itself.

When Lakkar died, the axe fell from his hand. The mountain settled over the years, and the exe formed a bridge between the mithral rich region known as Windchill Reach and the desolate White Crags, home to the frost giants.

Powerful mercantile wizards don’t just show up to help out dwarven clans in need. This is a small conflict, and with the mithral mine occupied by Hrimnir’s forces, there isn’t much coin to be made here. It’s unlikely that Markos is only here for war profiteering.

Markos is hiding something. The Icehammer must really be on the back foot or surely they’d have noticed this as well.

The new chieftain of the Winterkill goblins clings jealously to his title, the previous chieftain having vacated the position after being crushed to death for Hrimnir’s amusement.

Murgal Mawcraw lead his tribe along a dangerous line, harrying the Icehammer dwarves enough to please his new master while remaining a low priority for dwarven retribution. So far, his plan has succeeded, and he eagerly awaits the destruction of Torunedar. After all, the Icehammer marshal wouldn’t dare waste soldiers to squash an inconvenience when his front line is endangered.

The Elemental Chaos is an ever-changing landscape composed chaos and tumult, with occasional pockets of stability and order held together by the will of demon lords or elemental princes. In this whirling tempest, the Dawn Titans rule, primordial beings of entropy and destruction.

The Winterforge connects Icespire Peak to an icy region of the Elemental Chaos where a never-ending blizzard rages. There, some dark entity funnels power to the frost giant Hrimnir to spread icy desolation across the Sword Mountains and beyond.

When Florin Icehammer gathered his clan to settle Icespire Peak, he did not know the Winterkill goblin tribe had already usurped his birthright.

The two peoples did not clash tight away; the Winterkill goblins gave the newcomers a wide berth until their ways and weaknesses could be learned. Coveting the wealth the dwarves extracted from their mines, the goblins quietly stole into their camps and carried away ore and trinkets- not enough to give the goblins great pride in fooling their ancient rivals.

When the frost giants, led by the shaman Hrimnir and accompanied by an army of ice trolls, descended from the heights to make war on the dwarves, the Winterkill goblins saw their rivals weakened and wounded and knew it was time to strike.

The Icehammer is a dwarven throwing hammer crafted for the ancestors of the Icehammer clan. This hammer can only be lifted by a dwarf of Icehammer descent, and would return unerringly to the hand that threw it - until it plunged into the frost giant Lakkar’s chest. There, it struck the Winterforge, an artifact of Thrym and the source of Lakkar’s size and power.

Stuck immovably in the Winterforge, the Icehammer lay undisturbed for decades. When Florin Icehammer dislodged it to reclaim his clan’s heirloom, he inadvertently awakened the Winterforge and opened a tiny portal to the Elemental Chaos. While the Icehammer sat in the vaults of the nearby mithral mine, the portal slowly grew, eventually being discovered and exploited by the vengeful frost giants.

Seldom visited by sightseers, the rugged beauty of the Sword Mountains strikes awe into those who brave their dangers. Icespire Peak is no exception. In the winter months, the temperature drops so low that even the alpine rivers and their mighty waterfalls freeze solid. It has an eerie and wondrous sight to behold the great waterfall on lower Icespire stopped mid-plummet, each flowing strand of water frozen in glittering arc.

With Torunedar established and mining operations well underway in the rich mithral vein further up the mountain, Florin Icehammer and his Icehammer clan seemed well on their way to establishing a secure foothold in Icespire Peak. With the exception of minor thefts by the neighboring Winterkill goblins, the Icehammer clan grew in peace and prosperity for years.

This tranquility came to an end when Florin Icehammer finally located the ancient Winterforge, a mystical altar in the heart of the long dead Lakkar. There, he discovered this clan’s legendary weapon, but in claiming the hammer he disturbed the powerful magics laying dormant in that place. Now, an army of frost giants, ice trolls winter wolves, and snow goblins have pushed the Icehammer clan all the way back to Torunedar itself and seek to drive the dwarves from Icespire Peak.

In the heart of the colossal dead giant atop Icespire Peak, the Icehammer, an ancient weapon from which the dwarves of the Sword Mountains take their name, lays buried. When their leader, Skeld Icehammer, slew the frost giant Lakkar a century ago, he left the mighty artifact behind.

Though trumpeted as a hero for this feat, the weary giant-slayer avoided all discussion of the hammer or the harrowing battle in which it was lost. Upon the patriarch’s death, Florin Icehammer, Skeld’s son and heir, returned to Icespire Peak to locate and retrieve the family heirloom.

A century ago, the giant god Thrym gifted the Winterforge, a powerful artifact tied to the coldest realms of the Elemental Chaos, to an ambitious frost giant named Lakkar. Fuelled with extraplanar energies, Lakkar waged terrible war on the Icehammer dwarf clan.

The leader of the Icehammer clan, a veteran giant-slayer named Skeld, led a battalion of giant-slayers into the heights of Icespire Peak. After days of bloody fighting with heavy losses on both sides, Lakkar drew heavily on the power of the Winterforge, absorbing it into his own body. The giant rapidly grew in size and might, declaring himself a god. However, when Skeld hurled the Icehammer at Lakkar, the hammer penetrated Lakkar’s heart and slew the giant, ending the battle. The giant army scattered and the dwarves retreated back to the valleys and lowlands.

Though he is an able combatant and a cunning strategist, Hrimnir had no great standing among his kin until the activation of the Winterforge. Counted as one of more devout frost giants, Hrimnir was the visionary who seized the reins of power when his brethren’s connection to the elemental chaos was renewed. With the power granted to him by the Winterforge, he has silenced all dissent and now rules Icespire with an iron fist. Hrimnir has now secluded himself within Lakkar’s remains to commune with the Winterforge and whatever it is that lies on the other side. Though he is now rarely seen, his presence is felt all the more as enchanted ice begins to encroach on the surrounding mountainside.

The frost giant known as Lakkar was a mighty warrior of his clan and devout follower of Thrym, the god of cold. When the jarl of the clan grew old, Lakkar challenged him to a fight over leadership. But the old jarl was treacherous, and poisoned Lakkar before battle. In his weakened state Lakkar was easily defeated, and the jarl cast him out from the clan steading.

Consumed with rage by this injustice, Lakkar invoked the name of Thrym, asking him for a means to enact his vengeance. Thrym took pity on Lakkar, granting him the Winterforge, a powerful artifact which channeled the power of the ice realms within the Elemental Chaos. Armed with the Winterforge, Lakkar started a bloody swath of conquest across the Sword Mountains in Thrym’s name. He eventually returned to his clan steading, destroying any who stood by his rival slaying the old jarl.

When challenged by the Icehammer dwarves, Lakkar absorbed the Winterforge completely, directly channeling the power of the Elemental Chaos into himself. He grew in proportion as the primordial energies filled him, becoming giant among giants. Lakkar declared himself a god.

The god Thrym was angered by Lakkar’s hubris, and stripped Lakkar’s defenses, allowing Skeld Icehammer to slay him. As he died, Lakkar’s limbs began to freeze as the frigid energies consumed him. He screamed his rage to the winds as the Winterforge froze him solid atop Icespire Peak.

The Winterforge Is still trapped in the heart of Lakkar’s icy corpse, opening the way to the Elemental Chaos once gain.

Decades ago, the frost giants of Icespire Peak were defeated, and their leader, Lakkar, perished. The thwarted giants continued to eke out an existence in obscurity, worshiping Lakkar’s remains. The recent dwarven incursion scattered the frost giants once again, leaving them destitute until, that is, the greedy dwarves unleashed the power of the Winterforge.

Though their numbers have dwindled, the Winterforge has instilled the frost giants with new and terrible purpose. With an army at their command, the zealous leadership of their new chieftain, Hrimnir, the giants of Icespire Peak once gain march to war and conquest.

Hardy worthy of the designation ‘tribe’, the frost giants of Icespire Peak are no more than a few ragtag survivors of a brutal war decades ago. Many left the Peak, certain their tribe would never rise again. Many died in violent struggles for power. Those few who remained, however, gained new purpose when Hrimnir bonded with the Winterforge.

For the first time since the death of Lakkar, the faithful giants have a conduit to otherworldly power. Drunk on power and elation, they spared no time unleashing their vengeance upon their neighbors and oppressors. Reckless, brutal, and blind with rage, they call themselves Hrimnir’s Hands.

Soon after establishing Torunedar, the Icehammer dwarves discovered a rich mithral vein running through Icespire ’s eastern-facing sister peak. The clan quickly made plans for a subterranean keep to house the growing dwarven population in Icespire Peak, and a tapped-out mine shaft became an armory into which Florin would eventually place the recovered Icehammer artifact.

When the Winterforge awakened, the vengeful frost giants and their troll allies laid waste to the mine and the dwarves inside. Now the mine lays unused but far from empty. Ice trolls and winter wolves lurk within the bloodstained halls of the Icehammer mine, denying the dwarves a chance to reclaim their riches, their comrades, and the Icehammer.

An unforgiving environment, Icespire Peak lay mostly uninhabited in the decades after the Icehammer clan abandoned its settlements there. Many others have attempted to settle the Peak, but all efforts were defeated by the merciless wasteland. The once-numerous tribe of frost giants who formerly ruled here slowly dwindled to a small band of those few reluctant to leave the heights.

However, one small goblin tribe - clever, hardy, and desperate - somehow managed to eke out a living in the brutal cold of the Peak, and they came to be known as the Winterkill goblins. In such harsh conditions, their numbers cannot grow very large, but their determination and endurance allow them to survive in this land, by any means necessary.

When the Icehammer dwarves, led by Florin Icehammer, reclaimed Icespire Peak, they established a humble surface town to be a foothold until a grander subterranean hall could be established.

Composed of a few dormitories, a forge and a rudimentary wall, Torunedar was intended as a temporary settlement. When the frost giants attacked, the sleepy mining town rapidly evolved into a battle camp. Dormitories suddenly became infirmaries; the forge that once produced mining tools now churns out axes and shields.

Though Torunedar was never meant to be permanent, the Icehammer dwarves would sooner die than give it up to any invader, be they goblin, troll, or giant.

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